If tidings of war or threatened disturbance should arise
from Central Asia or Persia, the Agha is always one of the first to hear
of it, and seldom fails to pay a visit to the Governor or to some old
friend high in office to hear the news and offer the services of a tried
sword and an experienced leader to the Government which has so long
secured him a quiet refuge for his old age." Agha Khan died in April,
1881, at the age of 81. He was succeeded by his son Agha Ali Shah, one of
the members of the Legislative Council. (See The Homeward Mail, Overland
Times of India, of 14th April, 1881.)]
The Bohras of Western India are identified with the Imami-Ismailis in
some books, and were so spoken of in the first edition of this work. This
is, however, an error, originally due, it would seem, to Sir John Malcolm.
The nature of their doctrine, indeed, seems to be very much alike, and the
Bohras, like the Ismailis, attach a divine character to their Mullah or
chief pontiff, and make a pilgrimage to his presence once in life. But the
persons so reverenced are quite different; and the Bohras recognise all
the 12 Imams of ordinary Shiahs. Their first appearance in India was
early, the date which they assign being A.H. 532 (A.D. 1137-1138). Their
chief seat was in Yemen, from which a large emigration to India took place
on its conquest by the Turks in 1538. Ibn Batuta seems to have met with
Bohras at Gandar, near Baroch, in 1342. (Voyages, IV. 58.)
A Chinese account of the expedition of Hulaku will be found in Remusat's
Nouveaux Melanges (I.), and in Pauthier's Introduction. (Q. R.
115-219, esp. 213; Ilch. vol. i.; J. A. S. B. VI. 842 seqq.) [A new and
complete translation has been given by Dr. E. Bretschneider, Med. Res. I.
112 seqq. - H. C.]
There is some account of the rock of Alamut and its exceedingly slender
traces of occupancy, by Colonel Monteith, in J. R. G. S. III. 15, and
again by Sir Justin Sheil in vol. viii. p. 431. There does not seem to be
any specific authority for assigning the Paradise of the Shaikh to Alamut;
and it is at least worthy of note that another of the castles of the
Mulahidah, destroyed by Hulaku, was called Firdus, i.e. Paradise. In any
case, I see no reason to suppose that Polo visited Alamut, which would
have been quite out of the road that he is following.
It is possible that "the Castle," to which he alludes at the beginning of
next chapter, and which set him off upon this digression, was
Girdkuh.[1] It has not, as far as I know, been identified by modern
travellers, but it stood within 10 or 12 miles of Damghan (to the west or
north-west). It is probably the Tigado of Hayton, of which he thus
speaks:
